Review of "Biomedical Informatics; Computer Applications in Health Care and Biomedicine" by Edward H. Shortliffe and James J. Cimino

This article is an invited review of the third edition of "Biomedical Informatics; Computer Applications in Health Care and Biomedicine", one of thirty-six volumes in Springer's 'Health Informatics Series', edited by E. Shortliffe and J. Cimino. This book spans most of the current methods and issues in health informatics, ranging through subjects as varied as data acquisition and storage, standards, natural language processing, imaging, electronic health records, decision support, teaching methods and ethics. The book is aimed at 'healthcare professionals', and is certainly appropriate for the non-technical informatics user. However, this book is also excellent background reading for the technical engineer who may be interested in the possible problems that confront the users in this field.     

The dental informatics online community

Dental Informatics (DI) is the application of computer and information science to improve dental practice, research, education, and program administration. To support the growth of this emerging discipline, we created the Dental Informatics Online Community (DIOC). The DIOC provides a dedicated professional home for DI researchers and serves as an open, common, and worldwide forum for all individuals interested in the field. It was created and is maintained by the Center for Dental Informatics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine, independent from any professional association, corporate interest or funding source. The DIOC''s Website provides many useful features, such as a learning center, publication archive, member and project directories, and the Current Awareness Service (CAS). The CAS automatically notifies members about new information added to the Community. Notifications are individualized according to a member''s profile and activities on the site. The DIOC is a research-oriented online community which provides resources in the dental informatics and dental technology field, as well as a way to establish social connections to share ideas, problems and research opportunities. Member and activity growth since the community''s inception in 2005 have been steady, but future sustainability of the community depends on many factors.     

国外公众健康信息学发展研究

通过分析国外公众健康信息学研究的年代分布特点、核心期刊、重要作者和研究热点,探索国外公众健康信息学研究的历史、现状和发展趋势,为国内公众健康信息学领域的研究与实践提供理论参考。利用TDA、Excel等工具,从时间、期刊和作者分布三方面对SCIE数据库收录的公众健康信息学领域的研究文献进行时空维度分析,再进行关键词和高频被引文献分析。从发文量来看国外公众健康信息学研究的发展比较平缓,核心期刊包括医学互联网研究杂志与国际医学信息学杂志,重要作者有Eysenbach Gunther、Keselman Alla等。1994~2013年公众健康信息学研究热点包括基本问题、卫生系统和个人健康记录、健康传播和患者教育以及医学信息学相关学科。高频被引文献内容涵盖公众健康信息学科,公众健康信息系统,电子病历和个人健康记录,互联网对公众健康行为的影响等几个方面。     

WHO in crisis.

Media attention has been focused on the leadership of the World Health Organisation, rather than on the real factors that limit WHO''s effectiveness. These factors relate to the organisation''s structure and also to its current priorities, methods, and management. This article examines the objectives and strategy of WHO in view of financial constraints and donor countries'' demands; WHO''s stated goal of integrated primary health care; staff morale; and the growing dislocation between the regions and headquarters.     

Improving usability and accessibility of cheminformatics tools for chemists through cyberinfrastructure and education

Some of the latest trends in cheminformatics, computation, and the world wide web are reviewed with predictions of how these are likely to impact the field of cheminformatics in the next five years. The vision and some of the work of the Chemical Informatics and Cyberinfrastructure Collaboratory at Indiana University are described, which we base around the core concepts of e-Science and cyberinfrastructure that have proven successful in other fields. Our chemical informatics cyberinfrastructure is realized by building a flexible, generic infrastructure for cheminformatics tools and databases, exporting "best of breed" methods as easily-accessible web APIs for cheminformaticians, scientists, and researchers in other disciplines, and hosting a unique chemical informatics education program aimed at scientists and cheminformatics practitioners in academia and industry.     

A system worth saving.

The country will mark Canada Health Day on May 12, so CMAJ asked Dr. Michael Gordon to reflect on Canada''s health care system and the changes it has seen and will see. The special day, cosponsored by the Canadian Public Health Association, is designed to highlight "the need for better communication between health professionals and the communities they serve." In this article, Gordon reflects on the dangers facing Canada''s medicare system and the need to protect it from the inroads threatened by privatization.     

医学微生物学课程思政改革的实践与思考

专业课程是课程思政建设的基本载体,课程思政建设是课程教学改革的根本任务.医学微生物学是医学生的一门专业基础课程,教学内容涉及与人民生活息息相关的病原微生物,实用性强.紧密结合医学微生物学课程内容和人民健康需求,开展课程思政教育资源体系建设,强化学生知识学习和思想教育,达到"立德树人"的培养目标.文章介绍了围绕医学微生物...     

Accounting for cross boundary flows.

RAWP (Resource Allocation Working Party) allows for cross boundary flows by adjusting regional or district health authorities'' (DHAs) targets at an average specialty cost. The previous paper in this series examined problems for an inner city district health authority arising from RAWP cross boundary flow adjustment. This paper examines the likely importance of these and other problems for the National Health Service as a whole. Cross charging has been proposed as an alternative method of funding flows. District health authorities would receive an allocation equivalent to their RAWP target and then all non-emergency flows would be agreed between the authorities where patients live and competing authorities offering treatment at previously negotiated charges based on local estimates of each type of case. The problem of cost estimation is usually cited as a difficulty with this proposed reform, but this paper also discusses other important issues that tend to be neglected.     

RobertP Vertes and RobertW Stackman Jr: Electrophysiological Recording Techniques Springer Protocols, Neuromethods Series Nr. 54

This article is a review of the book: 'Biomedical Image Processing', by Thomas M. Deserno, which is published by Springer-Verlag. Salient information that will be useful to decide whether the book is relevant to topics of interest to the reader, and whether it might be suitable as a course textbook, are presented in the review. This includes information about the book details, a summary, the suitability of the text in course and research work, the framework of the book, its specific content, and conclusions.     

Genomics meets informatics

A report on the 11th Workshop on Genome Informatics, the annual meeting on genome informatics and related subjects supported by the Genome Informatics Society of Japan, Tokyo, Japan, 18-19 December, 2000.     

Women's health. The childbearing years and after.

Health and development planners have tended to see women primarily in context of their reproductive role. As a result, solutions to women''s health needs have been restricted to expanding and improving maternal and child health systems. There has recently been a major shift in direction, largely because of the influence of the world conference on population and development held in Cairo in 1994. Dr Guiseppe Benagiano, director of the special programme of research, development and research training in human reproduction based at the WHO, says, "We need to remind ourselves constantly that reproductive health is not simply a biomedical issue but one with serious implications for our general health and by extension, for all our efforts in human social and economic development." The 1993 world development report on health identified the lack of a clear strategy for engaging women in health care and suggested that child health services, prenatal care, treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, and family planning services should be provided jointly at convenient times. In an example of this, the Chilean Institute of Reproductive Medicine now offers integrated family planning services at the same time as child health services, and Thailand is experimenting with mobile health clinics to reach women in their homes. As the proportion of elderly women increases, old age is increasingly being seen as a female issue. With the impact of urbanisation and industrialisation, more of these women are living isolated lives, often suffering from chronic debilitating diseases. In his opening statement to the global commission on women''s health in April 1995 which focused on health conditions of women in old age, Dr Hiroshi Nakajima, the WHO''s director general, said: "Our goal should not be solely to extend lives in the physical sense, but to ensure that the added years are worth living."     

Periodic health examination, 1999 update: 1. Detection,prevention and treatment of obesity

OBJECTIVES: (1) To evaluate the evidence relating to the effectiveness of methods to prevent and treat obesity, and (2) to provide recommendations for the prevention and treatment of obesity in adults aged 18 to 65 years and for the measurement of the body mass index (BMI) as part of a periodic health examination. OPTIONS: In adults with obesity (BMI greater than 27) management options include weight reduction, prevention of further weight gain or no intervention. OUTCOMES: The long-term (more than 2 years) effectiveness of (a) methods to prevent obesity and (b) methods to treat obesity. EVIDENCE: MEDLINE was searched for articles published from 1966 to April 1998 that related to the prevention and treatment of obesity; additional articles were identified from the bibliographies of review articles and the listings of Current Contents. Selection criteria were used to limit the analysis to prospective studies with at least 2 years'' follow-up. BENEFITS, HARM AND COSTS: Health benefits of weight reduction were evaluated in terms of alleviation of symptoms, improved management of obesity-related diseases and a reduction in major clinical outcomes. The health risk of weight-reduction methods were briefly evaluated in terms of increased mortality and morbidity. VALUES: The recommendations of this report reflect the commitment of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care to provide a structured, evidence-based appraisal of whether a manoeuvre should be part of a periodic health examination. RECOMMENDATIONS: (1) Prevention: There is insufficient evidence to recommend in favour of or against community-based obesity prevention programs; however, because of considerable health risks associated with obesity and the limited long-term effectiveness of weight-reduction methods, the prevention of obesity should be a high priority for health care providers (grade C recommendation). (2) Treatment: (a) For obese adults without obesity-related diseases, there is insufficient evidence to recommend in favour of or against weight-reduction therapy because of a lack of evidence supporting the long-term effectiveness of weight-reduction methods (grade C recommendation); (b) for obese adults with obesity-related diseases (e.g., diabetes mellitus, hypertension), weight reduction is recommended because it can alleviate symptoms and reduce drug therapy requirements, at least in the short term (grade B recommendation). (3) Detection: (a) for people without obesity-related diseases, there is insufficient evidence to recommend the inclusion or exclusion of BMI measurement as part of a periodic health examination, and therefore BMI measurement is left to the discretion of individual health care providers (grade C recommendation); (b) for people with obesity-related diseases, BMI measurement is recommended because weight reduction should be considered with a BMI of more than 27 (grade B recommendation). VALIDATION: The findings of this analysis were reviewed through an iterative process by the members of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care. SPONSORS: The Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care is funded through a partnership between the Provincial and Territorial Ministries of Health and Health Canada.     

Informatics for peptide retention properties in proteomic LC-MS

Retention times in HPLC yield valuable information for the identification of various analytes and the prediction of peptide retention is useful for the identification of peptides/proteins in LC-MS-based proteomics. Informatics methods such as artificial neural networks and support vector machines capable of solving nonlinear problems made possible the accurate modeling of quantitative structure-retention relationships of peptides (including large polymers) up to 5 kDa to which classical linear models cannot be applied, as well as the proteome-wide prediction of peptide retention. Proteome-wide retention prediction and accurate mass-information facilitate the identification of peptides in complex proteomic samples. In this review, we address recent developments in solid informatics methods and their application to peptide-retention properties in 'bottom-up' shotgun proteomics. We also describe future prospects for the standardization and application of retention times.     

"Don't let others design your future", new CMA president tells physicians. Interview by Nancy Robb.

Dr. Judith Kazimirski of Nova Scotia becomes the CMA''s 126th president during the association''s annual meeting in Sydney, NS, this month. She says her priority for the next year is to help the CMA play a lead role as the debate intensifies about the future of health and health care in Canada. "The time is right for a very public debate about what people want their system to be, what problems they''re having, and how reform is moving ahead," she says, "and physicians have a critical leadership role to play."     

Mental health services and traditional healing in Indonesia: Are the roles compatible?

This study reports on the presentation of illness complaints by 90 individuals to nine traditional healers in three Indonesian cities. Focus is on the nature of problems, client explanations and expectations, healer treatment and subsequent outcome as judged by clients. Selected clients were observed and interviewed by a psychiatrist and one other health professional, and followed in a subsequent home visit. Complaints were categorized according to dimensions of acuteness and chronicity of problem, presumed self-limited characteristics, and psychological, general medical and other factors. Sixty-five percent of all clients had received prior treatment for the same problem in a biomedical health care setting. The study holds practical implications for policies regarding relations between health and mental health services and traditional healers in Indonesia. The authors wish to acknowledge support from the following institutions; The Institute for Health Research and Development, Ministry of Health, Republic of Indonesia (LITBANGKES) for financial support; The Asia Foundation, Jakarta; The World Health Organization, Southeast Asia Office; The Cultural Learning Institute, East West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii.     

Health,humanitarian relief,and survival in former Yugoslavia.

Since the World Health Organisation''s effort in former Yugoslavia started in July 1992 it has been concerned with the public health policies of survival. It has provided advice to the United Nations High Commission for refugees, helped the voluntary agencies coordinate their work, assessed health needs, and provided practical help in the field to all parties to the conflict. Three features of the Bosnia war have particularly deplorable effects on health: ethnic cleansing, deliberate attacks on hospitals, and systematic rape. The WHO''s response has included initiatives in nutrition, winter survival, and medical supplies. This experience shows that the WHO can have a useful role complementary to that of other agencies in situations where the basic elements for survival of the population are seriously compromised by war.     

Electronic health records: the European scene.

Caring for patients'' health problems relies increasingly on sharing information between clinical departments and disciplines and with managers. The medical record of the future will need to provide a flexible and shareable framework for recording and analysing the consultation process. The advanced informatics in medicine (AIM) programme seeks to encourage research and development in telemedicine in areas that are beyond the scope of any one country. It includes many European projects attempting to define the best storage and transmission formats for such diverse data types as laboratory results, biosignals, x ray images, and photographs, and in clinical specialties varying from intensive care to medicine for elderly people. One example, the good European health record project, is developing a model architecture for computerised health records across Europe that is capable of operating on a wide variety of computer hardwares and will also be able to communicate with many different information systems. The ultimate European health record will be comprehensive and medicolegally acceptable across clinical domains, hold all data types, and be automatically translated between languages.     

The health of a nation predicts their mate preferences: cross-cultural variation in women's preferences for masculinized male faces

Recent formulations of sexual selection theory emphasize how mate choice can be affected by environmental factors, such as predation risk and resource quality. Women vary greatly in the extent to which they prefer male masculinity and this variation is hypothesized to reflect differences in how women resolve the trade-off between the costs (e.g. low investment) and benefits (e.g. healthy offspring) associated with choosing a masculine partner. A strong prediction of this trade-off theory is that women''s masculinity preferences will be stronger in cultures where poor health is particularly harmful to survival. We investigated the relationship between women''s preferences for male facial masculinity and a health index derived from World Health Organization statistics for mortality rates, life expectancies and the impact of communicable disease. Across 30 countries, masculinity preference increased as health decreased. This relationship was independent of cross-cultural differences in wealth or women''s mating strategies. These findings show non-arbitrary cross-cultural differences in facial attractiveness judgements and demonstrate the use of trade-off theory for investigating cross-cultural variation in women''s mate preferences.